Task Forces' Consultants Not Getting Extra Perks: National Assembly Told

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan on Friday informed the National Assembly that the consultants hired by the government for task forces were not getting any extra perks, privileges and salaries.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Dec, 2018 ) :Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan on Friday informed the National Assembly that the consultants hired by the government for task forces were not getting any extra perks, privileges and salaries.

During the question hour, he told the House that excluding the constitutional posts, only one official was appointed on the prime minister's advice according to the information provided by 33 ministries and divisions.

According to the Establishment Division, he said, Saeed Turab Hyder was appointed as Member Finance in the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council in his own pay and scale on deputation basis on the advice of the Prime Minister. The officer, who belonged to the Pakistan Audit and Accounts Services, possessed 30 years of diverse experience in the field of finance accounts and the purpose of his appointment was to ensure smooth functioning of financial matters of the organization, he added.

On the objections raised by Javed Murtaza Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz about the appointment of advisers by the prime minister, Ali Muhammad Khan said it was the prime minister's discretion to appoint advisers to assist him in his work, which was not an irregularity.

He said the Federal government had constituted 12 task forces on the recovery of unlawfully acquired assets abroad, civil reforms, identification of impediments and facilitation of merger of erstwhile FATA and PATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, austerity and restructuring of the government, energy reforms, tourism, information technology and telecommunication, criminal law reforms, NAB law reforms, civil law reforms, education and health.

He said there was no legal hurdle in the appointment of Zulfi Bukhari because of the fact that he was a dual national and had his business in Britain.

Answering supplementary questions of Mohsin Dawar and Dr Shahnaz Baloch, he assured the House that the people from Balochistan and FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) would be given representation in the task forces.

To a question of Muhammad Aslam Bhootani, the House was told that there was no plan to connect Gwadar with Quetta through direct flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). The national airliners had been operating two weekly flights between Gwadar and Quetta, which were were suspended in October 2016 as the passenger load between the two cities was not enough to justify the route economics.

Flights between Quetta and Gwadar, he said, could only be operated once there was adequate potential in the market. Currently, the PIA was operating flights between Karachi and Quetta which were sufficiently meeting the market demand.

The minister said private airlines would be asked to operate flights on smaller routes like Larkana and Chitral.

He said the PIA had a worthwhile history but over the years it stopped its flights to cities like Washington, New York, Houston, Chicago, Glasgow and Bradford.

To another question of Pakistan Peoples Party's Shahida Rehmani, the minister said Radio Pakistan was part of the cultural heritage and all-out efforts were being made to turn it into a viable institution. There was no plan at present to lease the building of Radio Pakistan, Islamabad, he added.